Day 6 - Kitchen Part 2 #cgsc2015

Today the focus is counter tops and lower cabinets in the kitchen. Last time I did this in our kitchen (when we still had cabinets) I discovered we had had visitors, of the four-legged variety, they reportedly like cheese but my experience is they prefer chocolate or peanut butter. I didn't find any mice lurking behind the rice container, but they had certainly left the evidence of chewed cereal boxes and those lovely wee black pellets aka mouse turds. Not the most pleasant discovery amongst your food that is for certain so a great deal got thrown out. Hubby was somewhat skeptical to be honest as they had never had squeakers in the house, but my CSI skills regarding mice are pretty well honed after living in a mobile home in the middle of a farm for seven years (one year was so bad I was catching them by the tail and chucking them off the deck). Mice can chew threw damn near anything and fit in the tiniest of holes to get to food so I'd learned in my own kitchen, glass & metal is best, they had even chewed the Tupperware (the real McCoy) so yup, no more plastic storage if I could avoid it. The moral of my story, mason jars are our friends!

If you'd like you can continue to work widdershins on your cabinets from the kitchen entry but I'm going to tell you my cheat, I start under the kitchen sink. Why, you may ask. Because it is usually the worst for collecting crap that doesn't belong, de-cluttering the numerous half-used bottles of cleaners requires little emotional energy and once that cabinet is all cleared out, looking sparkly and organised, it often helps jump start the releasing process so the other cabinets are actually easier. Then I will go widdershins from that point ;).

I have multiple chemical sensitivities so I had long since switched almost entirely to homemade cleaners. Even those that claim to be full natural can irritate the fuck out of my sinuses and skin so easier to just make my own. You can clean just about anything with hot water, vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, borax, and Dawn. Yes I do know that Dawn is not homemade, but if they can wash cute duckies covered with nasty oil then I'm quite sure it is safe. Even if you do not have sensitivies I still recommend the homemade cleaners as they are so much easier on you, your home and the environment and there is more than one way witches are green! There are numerous recipes on the interwebs that you can find using these ingredients to make cleaners for every occasion. I did post one in the postscript in, "A few housekeeping notes" and at some point I plan to sit down to make a booklet of recipes I use but in the meantime Google and Pinterest rock ;).

Look through your cabinets and on your countertop and make a plan, mentally or on paper. For the countertop take a good look at what is there. What do you absolutely, without a doubt, need to keep within quick and easy reach?  Providing you have the cabinet space then that is all that should be on the counters! Small appliances, such as the toaster, kettle, coffee pot, if used daily or nearly daily, those can stay but there are many that you most likely do not use as regularly so if you can, give them a home out of sight. Some small decor items are nice, especially if they are also functional. A vintage jar to hold the larger cooking utensils, a ceramic frog keeping that scouring pad off the counter and even a nice basket of fruit, but do try to keep the clutter to an absolute minimum.

Work through the cabinets housing the baking dishes and cookware. Some things are nice to have multiples of, such as a couple of loaf pans - who wants to make one banana loaf at a time, but five pizza stones is probably excessive. I may as well tell you right now, I have a severe bias against non-stick cooking pans, I think the fucking things are toxic and not worth the convenience both for health reasons and environmental. If you can afford quality stainless steel, enamel coated and/or cast iron cookware please get rid of the teflon, even if it takes you a few years piece by piece. One scratch in a non-stick pan and you are suppose to chuck it (more waste and more money spent) but a good quality stainless steel pot or cast iron frying pan is actually quite easy to clean, cooks your food far more evenly and can literally last your lifetime and then some. *Climbs off soapbox.* Moving on, we'll be doing the same as every other cupboard or cabinet we've been diving into, if you haven't used that juicer in a year, have three mandolin slicers, or the mastermixer is missing parts, darling, send it packing.

Other areas that most likely need to be de-cluttered and reorganised in or related to the kitchen are the lazy-susan cupboard, the fridge and the pantry. For dry or canned goods, if you know you will not ever cook with it and it's still sealed, your local Food Bank or homeless shelters are ALWAYS in need of food. Organise by like items, it is far easier to find two cans of mushroom soup to make a casserole this way than if haphazardly put away (labels on shelves are awesome if you have kids and significant others that have trouble following your organisation). And as mentioned before, store dry goods in glass, such as rice, flour and even raisins and chocolate chips. They are then safe from bugs and rodents, glass is reusable nearly forever, and, in my humble opinion, it looks sexier than an eclectic mess of boxes and plastic containers. I think Chef Michael Smith has the sexiest pantry ever, but I couldn't find a good photo online of it so here is one similarish.

Here are some more great tips for kitchen organising from Tidy Mom.net. I particularly liked the lazy susan in the fridge and the measuring cups on the back of the cabinet door with the conversion chart. Brilliant!

Let's shake a leg and get to it! What was the oldest food item you found? I found some that was literally vintage here! How about duplicates, what did you have the most of one item?

Love & light,

~Síonaínn **  ƸӜƷ  **

Ps. Here is a post I wrote when I was still living in my mobile home on my mason jar obsession. My Pretty Nuts

Day 5 - Kitchen Part 1 #cgsc2015

The kitchen. The heart and hearth of our homes. When family gathers, it's often in the kitchen, when we have house parties the busiest room seems to always be the kitchen. Our morning wake up regularly starts here with coffee or tea and this is where we are sustained in body. Important decisions are made in the kitchen and the little comforts are found here; the smell of supper being prepared, cookies baking, bread rising, coffee brewing, so many of our olfactory memories can be associated with the kitchen. Remember when your parents prepared those special holiday feasts, mmmmm turkey roasting or Grandma's amazing scones and shortbread. Mom or dad getting us a warm glass of milk after a bad dream, a hot cup of cocoa after playing in the snow, homemade popsicles and ice tea on hot summer days.

Being the busiest area also means the kitchen is usually one of the biggest areas of clutter in our home. Because we tend to spend so much time here, everything and sundry follows us in. Inevitable junk drawers begin to grow a life of their own and who knows what in the hell is in the very back of the very top shelf of the corner cabinet. Expired dry goods, tupperware with no lids and lids with no tupperware, the retired blender that was tucked behind the flour, in case the newer one craps out. Unopened mail piles up on the counter by the kitchen entrance and the rest of the counter is a jumble of small appliances and gadgets.

Even a small kitchen can be quite daunting in the task to clean it so this room will also be split up into two days. Today we are going to focus on the upper cabinets and any freestanding shelving/cabinets such as baker's racks. As with the other rooms we will continue to work widdershins (counterclockwise). Maybe it is just me, but I really feel the difference of the energy of working one direction or the other. When I want to bring in something new, do a blessing or call in positivity, it feels natural to work deosil (clockwise), and conversely when it is time to banish or release widdershins really does seem to help focus the energy to let go.

One cabinet at a time we will go through our kitchens. I'm pretty sure by now you've gotten the gist of how this goes but hey, I'm here to give you that extra kick and kicking I shall do ;). Coffee mugs, drinking glasses, wine glasses, and beer mugs, determine how many you really use, match them up or find your favourites and the rest go to the give away. If the handle is nearly off, if there is a chip in the glass, or there is only half the cute cat picture left on the mug, it's time to chuck it. When you throw out glass or ceramics do be sure to dispose of them properly so that no one can get cut on it. Go through the rest of your dinnerware and dishes and do the same with all of it. If you have Granny's china and you hate it, I'm going to be honest here, then she really would rather you did not keep it. Take a good picture of the collection, another of the pattern and sell it to someone who will truly love it. Or if you have other family members that whined they didn't get anything from her, pass it on and tell them to quite their bitchin' ;).

How to NOT clean out your kitchen ;) (Scenes after ours was flooded this past February).

Spices, pastas, and raisins, oh my! Put your hand up if you were absolutely certain you had a jar of cloves but be damned if you can find it to make that delicious pie, so of course bought a new one, and of course found the original months later buried in the back of middle shelf, behind a really old bag of peanuts. Yeah, that's what I thought. Though a lot of dry goods do not spoil, they still have a shelf life. On Still Tasty.com,

Do Spices Ever Go Bad?

Answer: From a safety perspective they should be fine, but when it comes to flavouring your food, you may not be very happy with the results. As seasoning makers like McCormick point out, spices do not actually spoil. But when it comes to quality, the story is different. Over time, spices will lose their potency and not flavor your food as intended. As a general rule, whole spices will stay fresh for about 4 years, ground spices for about 3 to 4 years and dried leafy herbs for 1 to 3 years.

Their website is a great resource for deciding should it stay or should it go now ;). 9 Foods That Last Forever is a great article too :). Continuing with food, though canned goods have a really long shelf life too but if you accidentally bought pumpkin pie filling instead of canned pumpkin or hate tomato soup why do you still have it in the cupboard? Two words: Food Bank.

Don't forget your before and after photos, especially the pile of what you have decluttered.

Love & light,

~Síonaínn **  ƸӜƷ  **

Ps. Thank you to everyone for your patience with me, love you me pretties xx